


Loose Ends

by orphan_account



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Just something I did for fun, Tags May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23514160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: An Irken janitorial drone, a defect, and an absolute abomination try to find their place in the universe, with perhaps a little revenge on the side.—————This is a fic I wrote completely for fun, because I want to give some of these poor characters the stories and endings they deserve.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	1. Rude awakenings

Tak felt as though she should’ve been dead. Slipping in and out of consciousness, she wondered if maybe she was. However, that theory was curiously debunked by the fact that she could hear her pak whirring somewhere in the darkness. Then again, it could’ve perhaps been her imagination.

When she woke up, she immediately wished she hadn’t. She groaned as she peeled her face off of the cold metal floor, her head spinning as she sat up. She had no idea how long she’d been out, but her pak seemed to be still in the process of repairing her body, so if she had to guess, it hadn’t been too long.

The cell she sat in wasn’t familiar in the slightest. The walls were a grungy old metal, with a variety of different claw marks scrapping every side. There was no windows, and only a slight indent in one of the walls suggesting there was a door. 

There was a fresh looking mat that looked more like a rectangle of cloth in the corner, which she had conveniently been placed on the other side of the room from. There was nothing else in the cell, and she dearly hoped she wasn’t going to be staying here for very long.

How had she even gotten here in the first place? That was right... she had been in her escape pod after leaving that awful dirt ball that Zim had claimed. She scowled at the thought of him. Once she was out of this dump, she would tear him limb from limb.

The escape pod had gone haywire, and ended up launching itself into what it had briefly recognized as a... wormhole. That sure didn’t help the situation at all. She could be literally anywhere right now.

She froze, her posture stiffening as she realized something was missing. Mimi. Her SIR unit. 

She leapt to her feet, despite her body’s multiple protests to sit down and rest, and frantically searched for any kind of way out. Maybe ten minutes later, she slumped down onto the thin mat, realizing there was no way out. 

There was a small vent right above the door, but it was frustratingly well designed to be too small for her to fit through. Besides that there were no other exits or entrances that she hadn’t noticed upon first glance.

After about thirty minutes of boiling in her own anger, something finally decided to happen. 

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the wall that sat in front of her, the one with the indent in it, suddenly became translucent, revealing to her what was on the other side.

Tinted slightly orange was what looked to be a hall way. No cells were on the other side, but she guessed there was probably some on either side of her. Standing in the hallway were two ethereal creatures that seemed to be observing her.

She stood up, she surprise melting back into anger.  
“Let me out!” She barked in irken, extending her pak legs to appear more threatening, which in hindsight, really didn’t help her situation.

The creatures spoke in a language that sounded like soft airy chimes in the wind, a language that was quickly identified and translated by Tak’s pak.  
“Fascinating.” One of them breathed, ignoring her outburst entirely. “It’s not often we get one of these so intact.”

“It’s a female.” The other chimed, tapping a few screens that hovered in front of it with long, branch-like fingers. “Hmm. It’s data says that it calls itself Tak. A janitorial drone? Now that doesn’t seem right...”

Tak felt her face flush as she ground her teeth in anger.

“You touched my pak!?” She shouted, feeling violated and embarrassed that these creatures already knew so much about her.

“Curious,” Said the one tapping the screens. “It would seem it can understand us.”

“Ooh! Intelligent as well as fierce!” The other chimed giddily. “Yes, she will be brilliant for testing.”

She let her pak legs retract, a bit startled by the odd compliment.

“What do you mean, testing?” She growled.

“Oh dear, I’ve said too much,” It replied in a wispy laugh. “You’ll just have to wait and see, little irken.”

And then the wall returned to the way it was before, as if nothing had happened at all.

Nothing happened for a long time after that, a really long time. That was before they must’ve remembered or realized that irkens didn’t need sleep, and they filled her chamber with some kind of gas, knocking her unconscious.

Again.

When she awoke for the second time, she was just as baffled as the first time, if not more so. She woke up to open sky, and wondered for a moment if perhaps her first waking had been some strange dream.

She stared at the sky for a moment not bothering to get up, and observed how familiar it looked. A pale lavender dotted with clouds that she’d grown so used to.

Tak sat up in alarm.

She was on Irk.

The immediate relief of familiar surrounding was quickly met with suspicion. There’s no way this could be real. And yet, here it was.  
She sat in the field of some old farm land, and could clearly see the skyline of the city districts on the horizon. 

Confused, and absolutely bewildered, she wandered her way onto the path and headed for the building in the distance. The walk was long, but peaceful. The robots that harvested the crops and sowed the the seeds didn’t pay her much mind, and she realized she’d never really been here. She knew of the farm land’s existence, sure, but it had never really been necessary for her to be here in person. It was quieter than most of Irk, nothing but long legged robots pacing the fields and the sound of the cities in the distance.

She arrived at the checkpoint hesitantly, eyeing the guards that were stationed there. One was slimmer, and a few inches taller than the other one, who was a little pudgier. They looked more surprised than anything to see her there.

“...Halt.” One of soldiers said slowly as she approached, a puzzled look on his face. “There should be no irkens in this sector, how did you get in?”  
Her brow furrowed. “I... I’m not sure.” She replied honestly.  
The two guards exchanged glances, looking equally as confused  
as she was.  
“Ahem,” One of them cleared their throat. “Name and pak ID.”

As soon as her ID registered on the screen they’d inputed it into, both the guards expressions changed again.

“Wait, I’ve heard of you,” The shorter one gasped. “You’re Tak! You’re the one who wiped out Zim and his exile planet!”

She blinked in surprise.

“What?”

“Yeah, you were supposed to be re-encoded as an invader when you returned to Irk,” The taller one mused. “That’s what I heard, anyways.”

Tak couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was no longer going to be a janitorial drone. She beat Zim. She completed her mission, and she’d finally gotten what she wanted.

“Uh, we can escort you to the control brain.” The taller one suggested in her stunned silence. “I’m sure they’ve been waiting for you for a while.”

She nodded slowly, still shocked. 

She walked through the streets, accompanied by the two guards. Irkens looked at her with wide eyes as she passed, some in awe, some in jealousy, whispering to each other before they snapped back into line. 

She should’ve been overjoyed. She should’ve been walking down the streets with pride in her stride, basking in the glory of her completed mission. But something felt... wrong. Something felt off, as if there was something far in the bak of her mind that wasn’t adding up. 

Her suspicion grew, and she walked a little bit slower. This was wrong. She hadn’t destroyed Zim, or his pitiful dirt ball. She hadn’t arrived on Irk in the escape pod she very clearly remembered escaping in. 

There was something foggy in her mind that felt just out of reach, blocking her from putting the pieces together. Just before she’d woken up here. She’d been somewhere else, right? But as hard as she thought about it, the more it seemed to slip away from her memory.

Then, something peculiar caught her purple eyes. Something that definitely didn’t belong here. 

On top of a pile of boxes that sat in an alleyway, was an Earth feline, licking it’s paw. She stopped to stare at it, and when it looked up at her, she recognized it. 

It was Mimi. What was her disguised SIR unit doing here?

They locked eyes. Mimi then stood up, turned to face the alley, they looked over it’s shoulder at Tak before disappearing into the shadows.

Tak sprinted for the alleyway without thinking, she heard yells and protests from behind her, but she ignored them. She vaulted the boxes and landed in the alley, just in time to see the cat slip behind the corner at the other end.

She ran, her boots thunking onto the hard ground as she frantically turned the corner. She saw it again. It stared at her for a moment before jumping into another passage way. She took the hint and followed it’s lead, not bothering to look behind her.

Through twists and turns, and squeezing through tight passages, she was sure that by now she had to have lost whatever was following her.

The cat stopped in front of a slim alley way, and Tak nearly caught up with it.

“Mimi, wait!” She called, knowing it probably wouldn’t do much. The feline ignored her call, retreating into the alley as she approached. It was very slim, slim enough that she had to rotate her body so she could squeezed through.

Her SIR unit was small enough to keep running, dashing further and further from her sight.

“Wait, hold on!”

The small space between the building grew smaller and smaller, making it more and more difficult for Tak to squeeze through. She couldn’t see the end of the passage, or the cat for the matter. 

She stopped when she could no longer keep moving forwards, her face squashed between the walls. With a sigh, she realized she’d have to go back, maybe find a way around.

When she shuffled her body enough to turn around, she saw the exact same thing she’d seen in front of her. The walls grew closer together on either side of her, pinning her in place. How? How was this possible?

She shuffled around again, and she felt the walls start to close in on her. She shouted in frustration, trying to push against them. Surprisingly, this seemed to work, the ‘walls’ now feeling like what a human would describe as giant water balloons trying to crush themselves together.

She clawed her way forwards again, pushing her way towards where her objective was. What was her objective? There was so much going on, that she didn’t exactly know, her body simply urging her to continue struggling.

Tak shivered as she felt liquid begin to pool at her feet. She kept tearing forwards desperately, as the liquid began to rise. Suddenly, when she shoved her hand forwards, she felt the same liquid, and when she tore it open she was engulfed by it.

When she opened her eyes, many things were very different. She could feel a cable attached to her pak, and there was something clasped over her face so she could breathe in the tank of odd liquid she floated in.

She cried out in surprise and smacked at the glass that was too foggy for her to see through, but the liquid was too thick for her to have much of an impact on it.

There was then a muffled, mechanical hissing sound. Shortly after, the liquid began to drain from the tank, allowing her to stand shakily on her feet. She ripped the breathing mask off her face as the face of the tank slid open, stumbling her way out. 

“Whoa, hey, easy now..” A voice soothed in Irken, throwing something over her shoulders that soaked up the thick liquid that coated her body. Her vision was still too blurry to see who it was, so she begrudgingly took the stranger’s advice.

She wiped off her soaking uniform, the sound of typing echoing in the quiet room. She looked around to see various tubes with figures inside of them, just as she had been moments prior. It was eerily silent, the hum of machinery the only other sound.

She flinched as she heard a loud hissing noise behind her, and felt the cable connected to her pack fall off and clunk to mesh floor beneath them.

“There we go!” She heard the stranger chirp, and turned to see them pulling some kind of device off of the tube. 

The stranger was an Irken, like her. He wore round, reflective goggles over his eyes, that she assumed had various purposes. He wore an odd oversized an patchy coat, and didn’t appear to be wearing a uniform of any sort. The last thing of note about the odd Irken was that the end of his left antenna was was split, almost into a ‘Y’ shape. She wondered silently if that was some sort of mutation, as if it was an injury, his pak should’ve healed it by now.

He shoved the device in the bag slung over his shoulder, and turned to face her completely. 

“Who are you.” She asked in a low voice, ready to defend herself at any given moment.

“Name’s Rover,” He grinned, abnormally sharp fangs hanging over his bottom lip. “You’re Tak, right?”

She simply glared at him in response, clutching the towel wrapped around her.

“I’ll take that as a yes!” He chirped, and began walking, gesturing for her to follow. 

“Wait!” She snapped. “Where- why are you helping me?”

The strange Irken turned to face her, and just as he opened his mouth to reply, he was cut off by an alarm blaring overheard as the dim lighting of the room became a bright red.

Rover cursed under his breath. “I thought I-“ He stopped himself to look at Tak again. “Righto. No time to explain, lady. You wanna get off this hunk of metal, you’re just gonna have to trust me!” He yelled over the deafening alarm.

His pak legs shot out and he began scaling the nearest wall, and Tak had no choice but to follow behind. He tore the vent cover off, which was a lot larger than the one in her cell, and climbed up. 

Once they were in the vent, pak legs punctured metal as they scurried through the maze of identical crawlspace. Rover, however, seemed to know his way very well around the place, never hesitating as he took precise twists and turns.

He finally paused at a three way split, allowing Tak to catch up.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” She growled. “Or do you even know?”

“We’re going to the hangar,” He replied, ignoring the insult. “There’s a functional voot in the docking bay, but I’m going to need some help getting it out of there.”

Now it made sense to Tak. Whoever this Irken was, they’d tried to escape before, and failed. He got her out so she could help him.

The alarms suddenly blared louder, and Tak nearly jumped out of her skin when something slammed closed behind her. When she looked back at Rover, she could see that the rest of their paths were also blocked.

“Well. That’s new.” Rover observed.

Tak clawed at one of the doors with her pak legs but to no avail. She dented the thick metal, but there’s no way she could tear through it in time, especially if there were a lot of them.

“What now?” She hissed. It wasn’t long before they suffocated in this small space, but they couldn’t keep the vents closed forever.

“Umm,” The other irken rolled up his sleeve and began tapping at screen that was seemingly... built into his arm? “Uh, it’s fine, this is fine” He mumbled nervously, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

“Okay, plan b,” he huffed.

A loud beep sounded from the device, and there was a loud thunking sound from behind one of the sealed vents. Tak stared at the vent, and she transformed one of her pak legs into a blaster, bracing for a fight.

“You’d better hurry up with this plan b, then.” She growled.

“Oh no, that is plan b.” He grinned. “You might wanna get out of the way.”

Tak ducked just in time for a lazer to whiz by her antennae, as she rolled into the only vent that wasn’t blocked, back where they came from. She shoved Rover aside to see what was happening, ignoring his ‘Ouch, hey that’s rude,’

The laser moved in a precise square, tracing the outline of the barrier until there was a loud clang as the metal fell to the floor of the vent. 

“Mimi!” She gasped. Her customized SIR unit stepped through the smoking hole cut in the vent, saluting her as she came into view.

“Found her in the trash disposal,” Rover piped up. “Thought maybe you’d want it back.”

The sound of footsteps marched in the hall beneath them, and they both became very still until it passed.

“Alright, what now?” She mumbled, just in case there was anyone still nearby. “You’re the expert on this place.”

“We’re gonna have to drop out of the vents at this rate,” He sighed, clicking away at the device on his arm. “It’s gonna be a whole lot more dicey down there, but if we hurry, we can probably make it before they secure the hangar.”

“Then let’s hurry up.”

They only ran into the robotic defence system twice on their way, Tak shooting them down quickly before they could call for back up. It turns out her reaction time was faster than Rover’s. She kept that in mind just in case she ever needed to kill him.

They arrived in the docking bay, which was surprisingly barren. If you were going to put security anywhere, wouldn’t it be at the exit?

When they arrived at the voot, Rover stopped, tapping at his screens again. There was a hiss as the cockpit opened, and Tak made her way over.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” He said, not daring to stop her physically. “We can’t leave just yet.”

She squinted at him. “And why is that?”

He gestured to the opening to the outside, that had the typical field to stop the vacuum of space. The field was noticeably red, a concerning shade that she noticed he was probably implying couldn’t be passed through.

“How do we deactivate it?” She sighed, stepping out back on to the walkway.

“See, that’s uh, what I need you for.” Rover laughed nervously, before gesturing above the opening. “If you head up there, you can manually deactivate the lockdown system for a few moments. If we time it just right, you can drop into the cockpit as I fly through, and we can both get out of here.”

Tak gawked at him, partly at the sheer ridiculousness of the plan, and partly because she was offended that he thought she was dumb enough to follow through on it.

“You think I’m stupid?” She hissed. “You do it!”

“I can’t! You’ll need your SIR unit to cut through the panel, and now that you’re here, it won’t listen to me!” He argued, flinching away from her when she stepped closer. “Look, i-it’s dangerous for me too! If you don’t shut it down at exactly the right moment, I’m a goner!”

She stayed up in his grill for a moment longer, a vicious scowl on her face. Although she knew she didn’t really have a better option, she hated the one she was being given.

“Fine. But understand, you leave me here, I will hunt you to the ends of the galaxy and tear you to shreds. Got it?”

Rover smiled nervously with a gulp. “Got it.”

Their thin timer started abruptly as the door to the hangar could be heard sliding open across the docks. The two irkens exchanged a glance, one that could be considered of mutual understanding, before the hurried to complete their respective tasks. 

Tak launched herself at the wall with Mimi clinging onto her shoulders, and landed messily with a crash as she grasped the pipes with her pak legs. She skittered up the wall, heading for the panel that Rover had pointed to.

“Watch out!” The voice echoed through the hangar just in time for her to register the lasers that blasted at the wall in front of her, sending some kind of gas hissing of out of one of the broken pipes.

Her head snapped to look at the source of the threat, and she saw the pesky security robots getting ready for another round. However, she was quicker. Her blaster mowed most of them down easily, and she continued upwards.

When she did reach it, she noticed that Rover hadn’t been lying about needing Mimi, as the panel was made of the same material as the doors in the vents.

Once it was ripped off, it dropped down below, which was a frighteningly high drop. Not that Tak was scared. She was an Irken soldier, something as trivial a high drop shouldn’t have scared her.

She clicked on a light to see inside, and found that the wiring had obviously been tampered with before. A lot of wires were torn out of where they were meant to be, and hooked up to a big red button. 

She glanced behind her to see where the ship was at in it’s progress towards the door. It was making it’s way, bobbing and weaving out of the way of more lasers. Tak clenched nervously as ship began to approach, her hand hovering inches away from the button.

Just a few more moments. 

Just a little... bit... more...

A lot of things occurred in the next few seconds. 

Tak slammed her hand down on the button, immediately throwing herself downwards. She retracted her pak legs as she dropped like a stone, crashing into the open cockpit of the voot, seconds before it slammed shut and launched into the open expanse of space.

“Ha! It worked!” She heard a voice cry in triumph. “I can’t believe that actually worked!”

She sat up in the narrow seat, her body aching in multiple areas. Nothing her pak wouldn’t fix. After making sure her SIR unit survived the fall, she turned to her alleged ally.

“I... suppose it did.” She agreed, quite surprised herself. “I’m sure there was probably an easier way to do it.”

“Oh absolutely,” Rover grinned, his fang like teeth glinting in the soft glow of the dashboard. “Probably more efficient too. Well, no use dwelling on what could’ve been.” He shrugged.

Rover pulled off his goggles, placing this on his forehead, revealing a pair of bright, blood orange eyes. “Where to next?”

“The Empire,” she replied in confusion. Wasn’t that obvious? “I want this floating piece of junk obliterated for thinking they can contain Irken soldiers.”

Rover seemed to grimace at this. “Ha.. haha... about that...” He mumbled, occupying his attention with the ship’s controls. “They don’t take to kindly to Irkens like me over there...”

“Like you?” She echoed, squinting at him.

“Well,” He laughed nervously. “My... priorities aren’t exactly up to, uhm, the empire’s standards.”

Tak narrowed her eyes even more as she caught on to what he was saying.

“So you’re a defect.” She stated coldly, the other irken flinching at the word.

“That’s a bit harsh, I’m just little different, that’s all.”

“The empire has no room for defects like you.” She spat, watching his grip tighten on the controls ever so slightly. “You’re just a mistake.”

“All right, what about you then!?” The orange eyed Irken snapped all of a sudden. “I didn’t see any rescue teams coming to save their precious irken soldier.”

Rover regretted those words the instant they left his mouth. Tak was at his neck in a flash, her gloved claws digging into the skin of his throat.

“Sorry,” he squeaked, frozen in place. “I’m sorry.”

Tak’s claws loosened a bit, but she didn’t let go quite yet. She pondered the defect’s words for a moment, wondering what she did have to go back to. She’d failed her mission, and Zim had beat her. Returning would be shameful, and overall humiliating.

She shoved him away with a growl. “Fine. There’s some business I need to take care of first anyways.”


	2. Elsewhere...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somewhere else in the multiverse, someone else tries to figure out what to do with themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Attempted suicide, no one succeeds don’t worry

Zib dropped to his knees, his weight thudding against the metal surface. He couldn’t recall how long he’d been standing there since they left. It felt like hours, yet the loss of everything he’d worked for felt like it had just slipped from his grasp. 

He slammed a first down into the metal, clawing at it as hot tears burned his eyes, and frustration tightening in his chest. He clenched his teeth so hard that it hurt. 

He was going to get back at those two for ruining all his hard work. But when looked up at the empty sky, he couldn’t think of a way how. 

It was so quiet now. It was deafeningly silent, and he hated it. There were no more Zims left. Not even the hum of electricity remained. 

There was no one.

He slammed his hand down again, but weaker this time. This was just like last time. 

A sob tore through his chest as tears dripping onto his glasses, blurring his vision. He remembered the first time he’d been alone. He’d been terrified when he’d woken up to discover he’d destroyed his entire reality, but he’d been able to suppress that feeling by occupying himself with his new mission.  
After all, If he couldn’t save this world, than he’d just save all the rest. He’d be he hero he’d always dreamed.

He sniffled, pushing his glasses up as he wiped the tears from his eyes. He didn’t have another plan this time. 

He looked out of the barren wasteland of what used to be his home a long time ago, pain twisting in his stomach. 

He had nothing.

Choking on another sob, he gripped his shirt as he hunched over, screaming his frustrations and rage at the cold metal floor. His screams echoed over the decimated planet, a ghostly wail that rang into the silence.

“I’m sorry,” He mumbled, his voice hoarse from screaming, and cracking from the various sobs all caught in his throat. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re going to have to do a lot more than grovel for me to accept that pathetic apology, Dib-stink.”

Zib shot up immediately, looking around for the source of the familiar voice. 

“Zim?” He asked weakly, his voice cracking noticeably.

He heard the pak attached the back of his head begin to whirr in response, and he held a hand up to it, feeling it’s warmth.

“Hello, Dib. You didn’t really think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?” The voice asked teasingly.

“I-“ Whatever he was planning to say was lost to frenzy of frantic sobs as more tears spilt down his face. “You’re not-“ He gasped. “You’re dead.”

“No,” Zim sighed, as if that was quite unfortunate. “I’ve just been waiting to watch you fail.”

“...What?”

“I decided to be... patient. I knew I couldn’t get back at you, because you killed me,” He spat. “So I made the decision to wait, and watch you fail miserably, like I knew you would.”

Zib let out a strangled sob of a laugh, a pathetic sound that reflected exactly how he felt. 

“So that’s it, huh? You won.” He mumbled hoarsely. “You... got the last laugh.”

He expected maniacal laughter, insults, cries of victory, but instead he was met with only the quiet whirring of the pak, and the deafening silence of the wasteland. 

More tears dripped off his face as he waited for a response, something, anything. 

“Zim?” He croaked. The Zim he’d known would’ve always taken the chance to gloat in his face.

“This isn’t what I wanted.” A voice said, sounding so soft that he barely recognized it as Zim’s. 

He then heard the alien clear his throat, even though he didn’t need to. He didn’t have a throat. “I went into sleep mode after you destroyed your pitiful dimension. I thought you would wither away into nothing. Then you decided to wake me up with your insufferable screeching just now.”

“Oh..” He mumbled.

There was another silence as neither of them could think of anything to say next. Then again, what was there to say?

“What do we do now?” Was the only question that could really be asked.

And, “...I don’t know.” Was the only answer to it.

Out of nowhere, Zib began to laugh. He turned his face towards the empty void of a sky that used to be filled with stars and wonder, and he laughed.

He heard Zim snort from inside his head. “You’ve truly lost it, haven’t you?”

He wiped the tears from his eyes as he began to catch his breath. “I just-“ He chuckled sorrowfully. “It’s just funny, is all.”

“Not much about our situation is humorous, Dib-stink.”

Zib just sighed, closing his eyes, his face still turned to the sky. “I lost everything, and it’s all my fault.” He said quietly.

“Everything is gone,” He continued, shakily getting to his feet. “I really hope there isn’t an afterlife-“ He said, nearly choking on a sob. “Because I don’t want to face everything I destroyed.”

“What are you rambling on about, you worm?” Zim growled as Zib’s boots clunked against the metal while he walked across the top of the tower.

Zib ignored him, standing at the edge and staring out at the landscape with an expression of twisted grief. Before Zim could even think something else to say, his host took another step forwards, out onto open air and the frightening drop below. 

He screamed. Zib’s plan was to go out dignified, silently accepting his death as he crashed into to ground below, but then again, when do his plans ever work the way he wants them to?  
He cried out, swiping his claws at open air in attempt to slow the fall in any way. That was when he realized, he didn’t want to die. Please, he thought. I can still fix this somehow.

Please.

He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the end.

Instead, his ears were filled with a deafening screeching sound, as his momentum abruptly slowed, until eventually he stopped.

He gasped a deep breath of air, blinking the tears away from his eyes as he realized he wasn’t dead. He was hanging a few feet from the ground, until he suddenly dropped, crumpling to his knees the moment he hit it.

His heart was pounding a million miles an hour, his adrenaline pumping so hard it made him nauseous. Trembling, his turned his head to look up, and saw the four giant scratch marks torn through the metal of the wall, and he put two and two together as the pak legs began to retract into the back of his head.

“What,” He heard the irken’s voice hiss from inside his head. “Is wrong with you? I refuse to believe you’re the same idiot who managed to kill the great ZIM.”

“..Why?” Zib gasped, still catching his breath. “Why did you stop me?”

“Make no mistake, Dib-thing,” Zim spat, a little too quickly. “I’d love to see the end of your pathetic life, but unfortunately we share this awful body. Until I can find a new host body, I still need you alive.”

“A... new host body?” He asked, his heart rate finally beginning to slow a little.

“...Yes. I’ll consider your awful apology if you find me a new body. If you aren’t going to live for yourself, then you shall do it for Zim!”

A crumpled copy of a crooked smile tugged at his lips as the familiarity of Zim’s dramatic flare filled his ears.

He opened his mouth to say something, but he was abruptly cut off by the sound of a loud crash in the distance. 

Zib swivelled his head to search for the source of the noise, and saw a tail of black smoke begin to rise on the horizon, followed by the sound of angry shouting that he couldn’t make out the words of.

Maybe he had a second... no, third chance after all.


End file.
